Hindu Students Plan Regional Meeting

Declaring that the shaping of American Hinduism should be influenced by college-age members of that faith, the nationwide Hindu Students Council will hold its first West Coast regional conference on Sunday at UCLA.

An estimated 150,000 Hindus live in the Greater Los Angeles area but Hindu student groups are rare on local college campuses, said conference spokesman Dheeraj Singhal, who also represents the Hindu Students Council.

In early 1997, however, Hindu councils are expected to start at UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Northridge, he said.

The formation of campus groups in the United States and Canada has been sponsored by Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHP), whose parent body in India was formed three decades ago as a Hindu nationalist group.

Principal speakers Sunday will include scientist Mahesh Mehta of Boston, a past president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America; Veena Gandhi, a VHP leader who heads the yoga section of American Assn. of Physicians from India; Swami Atmavidyananda of the Vedanta Society of Southern California and Dr. Manohar Shinde, a Northridge psychiatrist.

Although VHP and related groups are often linked to conservative religious-political activity in India, representatives of the Hindu Students Council said that the student movement in the United States does not have a political agenda.

Ajay Shah of San Diego, one of about 30 Hindu Students Council organizers meeting today in Los Angeles, said that Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America is a nonsectarian religious group.

“The Hindu Students Council has operated as an independent body even though VHP of America sponsored us at the beginning,” Shah said. “We have no day-to-day dealings with them.”

The conference itself, under the theme “Hindu Youth: Linking Ancient India to Modern America,” will include lectures and seminars from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Ackerman Student Union, with a cultural program in the evening. Registration is $15 and the event is open to the public. (310) 824-7081.

CONFERENCES

Hundreds of Reform and Conservative rabbis will converge on Palm Springs next weekend for annual regional conferences that will include some joint sessions--one of them to hear Dr. Ruth Westheimer expound on “A Jewish View of Sexuality.”

The Pacific Assn. of Reform Rabbis will meet at the Palm Springs Hilton Jan. 5-9. The Conservative-affiliated Pacific Southwest Region of the Rabbinical Assembly will convene at the Palm Springs Hyatt Jan. 5-8.

The groups will convene to hear Westheimer and three lectures by Orthodox Rabbi David Hartman of Hebrew University, the director of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. The two rabbinical groups often meet concurrently in Palm Springs, but this is the first time they have had so many joint sessions, said Rabbi Lawrence Goldmark of La Mirada, the executive vice president of the Reform rabbis association.

DATES

The Rev. John Buehrens, president of the Boston-based Unitarian Universalist Assn., will speak on problems caused by government cuts in welfare and education for the poor at the 11 a.m. service Sunday at Throop Unitarian Universalist Church, 300 S. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena. (818) 795-8625. Later, Buehrens will officiate at 4 p.m. services in Canoga Park to dedicate Emerson Unitarian Church’s new sanctuary and social hall at 7304 Jordan Ave. The old church building could not be repaired after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The small congregation raised $200,000 to augment an $882,000 loan from the Small Business Administration to rebuild. (818) 887-6101.

* Tammi Schneider, professor of the Old Testament at Claremont Graduate School, will speak at the Biblical Archeology Society’s Los Angeles chapter meeting Friday on excavations at Tel Sasi, which was once known as the city of Gath, home of the biblical figure Goliath. The chapter meets in Arcadia at 7:30 p.m. on the first Friday of every month at the Glendale Federal Bank community room behind the bank at 100 South 1st St. Donation $4. (818) 338-7700.

* A one-day workshop titled “Creating Your New Year in the Light of the Spirit” will be led by Marie Rientord on Jan. 4, starting at 10 a.m., at the Mary and Joseph Retreat Center, 5300 Crest Road, Rancho Palos Verdes. (310) 377-4867, Ext. 223.

* Evangelical Christian musicians and bands, including Audio Adrenaline, Susan Ashton, Third Day, Rebecca St. James and The Kry, will appear at Knott’s Berry Farm on New Year’s Eve. Tickets to the Praise ’97 event, which lasts from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m., are $22 in advance and $24 at the door, if available.

FINALLY

Close on the heels of the merry one-nighter by that “jolly old elf” St. Nick, some contemporary Christian comics will be appearing under church auspices in Los Angeles and Simi Valley:

* “A Night of Laughter,” emceed by comedian Broderick E. Rice and featuring Margo Foreman of Houston, Bill Farmer (voice of Wile E. Coyote in “Space Jam”) and the comedy ensemble Kingdom Komics, will be held at 7:30 p.m. today at the West Angeles Christian Arts Theater, 3020 Crenshaw Blvd. The show will benefit the West Angeles Church of God in Christ’s Crenshaw Corridor Revitalization Project. $13 at the door. (213) 731-3012.

* Christian stand-up comic Robert G. Lee, a warmup comedian for television shows (“Frazier,” “Wings,” among others) and the maker of three comedy videos in two years, will perform Jan. 5 at the 6 p.m. Sunday Night Live informal worship service at Simi Valley Presbyterian Church, 4832 Cochran St. (805) 526-5475.

Notices may be mailed to Southern California File, c/o John Dart, L.A. Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311, or faxed to Religion desk (818) 772-3385. Items should arrive about three weeks before the event, except for spot news, and should include pertinent details about the people and organizations with address, phone number, date and time.

THEOLOGY

Eleven Latino Catholic theologians will meet in San Diego next week to launch a long-term project “to reinvent Catholic systematic theology” from the perspective of their faith and culture.

Established with a grant from the Lilly Endowment, the project is based at the University of San Diego’s Center for the Study of Latino Catholicism, which is headed by Orlando O. Espin, associate professor of Latino theology.

Among scholars at the five-day, invitational conference starting Thursday will be Virgilio Elizondo of the Mexican American Cultural Center in San Antonio; Alejandro Garcia-Rivera of the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Jeannette Rodriguez-Holguin of Seattle University and Justo L. Gonzalez of Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.